Colorado should create a rapid-response team of farmers, university scientists and health workers to get to a farm faster after a food-borne illness outbreak, experts at a state agriculture conference said Thursday.

The Governor's Forum on Colorado Agriculture focused on food safety, following the deadliest U.S. food-borne illness outbreak in at least 25 years. Melons contaminated with listeria from a Holly farm have been linked to 32 deaths nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The state's response to the outbreak "was as close to perfect as we are going to see" — it took about two weeks from the start of the outbreak until the deadly cantaloupes were recalled, said Larry Goodridge, a food microbiology professor at Colorado State University.

But the state could improve by creating a team that could activate within hours of an outbreak, Goodridge said. University scientists and produce growers were called to help with the listeria cantaloupe investigation, but not immediately, he said.

"Our food supply is one of the safest in the world, if not the safest," Goodridge said. "But if you were to ask that question of family members who had someone die, they would tell you our food supply is not safe."

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Goodridge, who studies bacteria in meat and other foods, said the government should target spending on high-risk produce; in particular, by educating farmers who grow high-risk produce. More focus on food inspectors isn't likely to significantly improve the system, he said.

"We could never inspect enough," Goodridge said. "It's much better to take the growers and educate them about what to be aware of."

Another food-safety expert, Farm Fresh Direct chief executive Jim Knutzon, said he expects the federal government will write more specific regulations for producing cantaloupe and other produce. Then third-party auditors — hired by farms to inspect their operation — will have to check for those specific standards called for by the Food and Drug Administration.

If a farm wants to deviate from its current plan, such as by buying a new type of sorting machine, it would have to seek approval from inspectors, experts suggested. Jensen Farms in Holly began using a potato sorter to pack its melons before the outbreak, a possible source of contamination.

The number of reported multi-state food-illness outbreaks have more than quadrupled in the last 20 years, in part because Americans have been increasingly eating food grown internationally, not locally. About one in six Americans gets food poisoning each year.